Summer at home in my garden

February has been very hot and dry and staying inside in the air conditioning has been a major activity - plenty to do with assignments for my course. But the sulphur crested white cockatoos have been busy this time of year eating the berries from my pistache tree and effectively pruning leaves and branches and dropping them everywhere.

It's so dry some of the Virginia Creeper leaves are changing colour already. My dogs, Rosie and Daisy need a haircut but enjoy being on the back deck and watching what I'm doing. I've been having fun photographing the centre of some of the flowers in my garden. They have potential for tapestry designs. Amongst some of the greenery the Snake Woman sculpture rises out to survey the scene.

At last in March temperatures are finally under 30C and the weather is fantastic, if only it would rain. All the rain has been in northern Australia with the monsoon flooding, the worst for many years. And everyone has heard of the shocking bushfires in Victoria where over 200 people have died and thousands of homes lost. Australia sure is a land of extremes.